This isn’t your basic alfredo recipe, I have few things I do to elevate the flavour to make it extremely tasty. We have this at least once a week at our house because everyone loves it including the kids, its so delicious and there's also a plus of it being very easy and quick to make - its takes under 20 minutes from start to finish. I call this a win win! Restaurant quality dish right in the comfort of your own home.
INGREDIENTS
Raw king prawns (270g)
Parmesan cheese (1.5 cups, freshly grated )
Minced garlic (6 cloves)
Parsley (1-2 tablespoons)
Double cream (300mls)
Butter (2 tablespoons)
Fine ground black pepper (1/2 teaspoon)
Fresh cracked black pepper (1/4 teaspoon)
Oregano (1/4 teaspoon)
Basil (1/4 teaspoon)
Cayenne pepper ( 3/4 teaspoon)
Salt to taste
All purpose seasoning 1.5 tablespoons (or chicken stock cubes)
Linguine (or any pasta of your choice, fettuccine and tagitelle are both great with alfredo sauce)
METHOD
Prep is key...
Prep the following ingredients first before you start cooking on the hob as alfredo sauce comes together really quickly.
Shrimp Prep - clean, de-vein, then add little bit of salt and black pepper, mix and set aside for later. TIP: Keep the seasoning here simple so the king prawn flavour is not masked. Its going to absorb all of the lovely flavours from the sauce anyway. Also if you can get your hands on raw king prawns rather than cooked prawns that’ll be better as you’ll be less likely to overcook the shrimp and stay succulent.
Garlic Prep - peel and crush 6 cloves using a garlic press. Or finely mince or chop the garlic.
Parsley Prep - chop up a few sprigs of fresh parsley, just the leaves, remove the stems.
Parmesan Cheese Prep - grate the hard block of cheese enough for about 1 and a half cups of grated parmesan.
Lets get cooking...
First thing you want to do is to cook the pasta according to the package instructions while the sauce is being made.
Add some olive oil into a pan, and once the oil is hot enough add the shrimp, and fry these over medium-high heat up until they just turn pink, so you want them about 90% cooked. This takes no time at all, I’d say less than 2 minutes. They’ll become fully cooked through once they’re added to the sauce. Doing it this way helps them to remain succulent.
remove the shrimp from the pan, then in the same pan add in the butter and allow it to melt, and use this to deglaze the pan, scraping up all those delicious browned bits in the bottom of the pan. This is going to greatly boost the flavour of the sauce.
Next add in the crushed garlic and sauté on a gentle medium heat for about 1 minute or until the garlic becomes fragrant. Try not to burn the garlic as it’ll turn bitter, so stir the garlic often while cooking to prevent burning.
Once the garlic is done add in the double cream and stir this in well, incorporating the garlic and butter.
Add in half a cup of water then stir everything together well.
Immediately after, season with salt, fresh cracked black pepper, ground black pepper, oregano, basil, cayenne pepper and all purpose seasoning and stir well.
Now leave to simmer for 3-4 minutes on a gentle medium heat stirring occasionally, by now it should have thickened slightly.
Add the sautéed shrimp back into the sauce.
Remove the pan from the heat source, and add in the parmesan cheese. Continue stirring until the cheese is incorporated into the sauce and has melted and the sauce is smooth and no longer grainy in texture.
Bring the pan back to the heat and simmer and continue to cook for about 2-3 minutes or until it starts to thicken.
When is starts to thicken turn off heat, add in the chopped parsley and the sauce is done!
Now just drain the linguine or your pasta of choice and add this into the sauce gently tossing until pasta is evenly coated.
Serve immediately and enjoy.
Serve it up with a delicious side like garlic bread, or to take the carb-fest guilt away make some veggies on the side like sautéed broccolini, and enjoy a restaurant quality dish that you can make right at home with just a few key ingredients.
Here are a few photos:
Watch the recipe tutorial | https://www.youtube.com/watch?edufilter=NULL&v=zps_xAeiMq4